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Chacin no worse for wear after liner hits leg

By
Ryan PosnerMLB.com

ARLINGTON -- It appears that Angels right-hander Jhoulys Chacin was able to dodge a serious injury after he was unable to dodge a liner off the bat of Jonathan Lucroy in the Angels' 3-2 loss to the Rangers on Monday night.

Lucroy sent a 104-mph line drive, per Statcast™, that hit Chacin squarely on his left shin with one out in the fourth inning. Chacin said the ball didn't hit a bone, though, and instead caught just muscle. Though in pain, he doesn't expect anything serious to come from the incident.

ARLINGTON -- It appears that Angels right-hander Jhoulys Chacin was able to dodge a serious injury after he was unable to dodge a liner off the bat of Jonathan Lucroy in the Angels' 3-2 loss to the Rangers on Monday night.

Lucroy sent a 104-mph line drive, per Statcast™, that hit Chacin squarely on his left shin with one out in the fourth inning. Chacin said the ball didn't hit a bone, though, and instead caught just muscle. Though in pain, he doesn't expect anything serious to come from the incident.

"It feels painful and it's all colorful, but I think I'm going to be fine," Chacin said.

Lucroy's line drive deflected off Chacin and toward first baseman C.J. Cron, who was able to retire Lucroy. Chacin remained on the ground for a few minutes after being hit while looked at by trainers and manager Mike Scioscia.

After a few warmup pitches, Chacin was able to stay in the game.

"When he hit me, he hit me pretty well," Chacin said. "As soon as I got up, I put my foot down and felt like I could still go."

Chacin was able to get out of the fifth unscathed after allowing a leadoff single to Adrian Beltre, who moved to second on Lucroy's line drive. He was not as lucky in the fifth, though, giving up a home run to Nomar Mazara on the very first pitch of the inning. Chacin was able to finish the fifth with only the home run allowed, but he would not return for the sixth.

"When he got hit in the leg, that took something out of him," Scioscia said. "After five innings that was about it for him."

Chacin's exit after the fifth inning was a result of both the bruise on his left leg and the fact that he was at 91 pitches. Being able to go five innings was crucial, as Scioscia did not have full use of his bullpen after using four relievers in Sunday's win over the Blue Jays.

"I just wanted to try and go for one more inning to help the team," said Chacin, who gave up only one run over his five innings. "But I felt that I couldn't go any more [after five innings], so I said, 'I've got to stop here.'"

The outing by Chacin continued a string of impressive performances from Angels starters, who have allowed just one run in their last 18 innings. After seven consecutive starts of allowing four-plus runs, Chacin has a 1.06 ERA in his last three starts.

"He pitched a good game," Scioscia said. "I think he had a really good slider going and good command with his fastball. That had movement on it."

Ryan Posner is a reporter for MLB.com based in Texas and covered the Angels on Monday.